21 March

CEO Update

Dear Colleagues, I hope you are all well.

A watershed moment for us this week as we open registrations for our first Aviation Leadership Summit. I am proud to say that the Summit will be a world-class event, held at Westpac Stadium, one of NZ’s premier event facilities. BUT, the total costs to members will be less than in previous years. This is part of my commitment to doing all we can for our members. Our Survey is released this week, so please let us know what else we can do better.

The MH 370 mystery continues to occupy the headlines – and has generated many media inquiries to us on diverse topics such as Do we have GPS tracking for commercial aircraft, if not why not?

Continued world attention on all things aviation has provided opportunity to raise our profile and that of our members. Did you hear Pacific Aerospace’s China JV mentioned on primetime TV this week? The March issue of Airwaves in Australia has an article we prepared on ‘Innovation in New Zealand aviation’ – it references a number of companies and outlines New Zealand’s capabilities in track and tracing technologies…..the same issue includes an article on Spidertracks.

Like many, my diary is bursting with meetings. A key one this week was the Whole of Government Forum focussed on growing NZ aviation exports. More on this below.

Index

Aviation Leadership Summit 2014

Our first Aviation Leadership Summit will be held at Westpac Stadium in Wellington 20-22 July 2014. Westpac Stadium is New Zealand’s premier multipurpose stadium and has hosted many world sporting and entertainment events.

Celebrating 100 years of aviation – The Future. This is the theme of our Summit. We will celebrate what aviation has achieved over the last 100 years and look forward to what the next century will bring, operationally, technologically, economically and politically. The draft Summit agenda is below

Registration is NOW OPEN for exhibitors and delegates. Early bird pricing applies until the end of April, so be in quick.

Sponsors: Sponsorship packages will be available next week. We look forward to working with our sponsors on this unique aviation leadership event.

Whole of Government Meeting

A great initiative where all government agencies having a role to play in growing the NZ aviation industry get together to make this happen. This includes, NZTE, Callaghan Innovation, MFAT, MOT and CAA. There are a whole bunch of initiatives under discussion, including getting Part 147 implemented. This is a powerful group with a lot of potential. At this meeting, we spent quite a bit of time sharing information. Going forward we need to agree some fundamentals in order to fast-track our success. This includes key questions such as: What is our goal? What does success look like? What are we asking and expecting of participants in terms of contributions? This will really help to give us focus and momentum.

We next meet in Christchurch with industry on 14 May. A great opportunity to showcase industry capabilities. Work already undertaken with this group includes the way the sector is promoted internationally (standard messaging), the NZ Inc approach to Indonesia, input to Bilateral Air Services Agreement negotiations, the India New Zealand Aviation Arrangement (improves access for NZ companies to India), input to CAA on the commercial potential in China, and addressing training competitiveness where prospective partners require a Part 141 equivalent.

We Want to Hear from You!

As mentioned last week, we’re keen to learn more from you about how we are doing, and to help shape what we do in future. The online survey should be with you today. It will take you less than 10 minutes to complete. Replies by 4 April please and one respondent will receive free entry to the Aviation Summit in July – worth $500.

Rotary Business Opportunity in the South Island

Government Electronic Tender Service (GETS) reference 41774 General helicopter services including passenger and equipment transport, firefighting, weed control and wild animal control for the Eastern South Island, handled by the Department of Conservation office in Rangiora. Bids close 22 April. See GETS or contact dturner@doc.govt.nz

Keen to save money on your FOREX dealings?

NZForex is a multinational business specialising in international payments & foreign exchange risk management. It is already used by a number of aviation companies. NZForex has made a difference to companies transacting internationally through delivering: